ABSTRACT
Behavior can be understood and appraised only in terms of what has gone before and what is coming. The present is but a moment in a dynamism that stems from the past and hearkens to the future. The child is not a miniature adult. Physically, as well as functionally, the child is not only quantitatively, but above all, qualitatively, different. What is normal in the child may be quite abnormal in the adult. One may say that all this is obvious, were it not for the fact that errors and judgments based on adult standards are widespread and persistent. Probably, underneath the fallacy is a notion that the child is a defective adult.
